April theme: Miscellaneous light and cat words 🦁

Teaser

helium, solar, sun, south

Full Text

• Proto-Indo-European *sóh₂wl̥ sun ^[1]

  • Balto-Slavic *sáuli sun

    • East Baltic *saulē

      • Lithuanian sáulė sun
    • West Baltic

      • Old Prussian saule sun
    • Balto-Slavic *sulnika

      • Slavic *sъlnьce sun

        • East Slavic

          • Russian солнце solnce sun
          • Ukrainian сонце sonce sun
        • South Slavic

          • Bulgarian слънце slǎnce sun
          • Old Church Slavonic слъньце slŭnĭce sun
          • Serbo-Croatian сунце sunce sun
        • West Slavic

          • Czech slunce sun
          • Polish słońce sun
    • Balto-Slavic *pa-sáuli

      • East Baltic

        • Lithuanian pasáulis world lit. "place or thing under the sun"
  • Celtic *sāwol

    • Brythonic

      • Welsh haul sun
    • Old Irish súil eye from the sun as the "eye of the sky"

      • Irish súil eye
  • Germanic *sōwulō sun, the rune ᛊ

    • East Germanic

      • Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌿𐌹𐌻 sáuil sun, the letter 𐍃
    • North Germanic

      • Old Norse sól sun, the rune ᛋ

        • Danish sol sun
        • Icelandic sól sun
    • West Germanic

      • Old English sōl sun
    • English Sowilo the rune ᛊ/ᛋ
    • Germanic *swagilaz sunny, solar

      • West Germanic

        • Old English sweġl the sky, Heaven, sun, the rune ᛋ
  • Hellenic *hāwélios

    • Classical Greek ἥλιος hḗlios sun, day, east

      • Greek ήλιος ílios sun
      • Classical Greek ἡλῐοτρόπῐον hēliotrópion heliotrope (flower), sundial, heliotrope (bloodstone) lit. "sun-turning, compare girasole

        • Greek ηλιοτρόπιο iliotrópio heliotrope (flower), sunflower
        • Latin hēliotropium heliotrope (flower), heliotrope (stone)

          • French héliotrope

            • English heliotrope
      • Sanskrit 𑀳𑁂𑀮𑀺 heli
      • New Latin helium noble gas with atomic number 2, helium ^[2]

        • English helium
        • Translingual He chemical symbol for Helium
      • Classical Greek Ἥλιος Hḗlios divinity of the Sun

        • Latin Helios

          • English Helios
  • Italic *swōl sun

    • Latin sol sun

      • Central Romance

        • Italian sole sun

          • Italian girasole sunflower lit. "sun-turning", compare heliotrope

            • English girasole
            • English girasol
            • Italian girasole articiocco Jerusalem artichoke

              • English Jerusalem artichoke deformation by folk etymology
      • Eastern Romance

        • Romanian soare sun
      • Insular Romance

        • Sardinian sole sun
      • Western Romance

        • Spanish sol sun
      • English sol
      • Brythonic

        • Welsh Sul

          • Welsh dydd Sul Sunday
      • Vulgar Latin *soliculus sun

        • Western Romance

          • French soleil sun
      • Latin sōlāris related to the sun, sunny

        • English solar
        • Latin sōlārium sundial, sunny terrace "sun-place"

          • English solarium
          • Dutch zolder attic
  • Indo-Iranian *súHar sun

    • Iranian

      • Avestan 𐬵𐬎𐬎𐬀𐬭𐬇 huuarə̄ sun
      • Western Iranian

        • Persian خور xōr sun

          • Persian خورشیدی Xoršidi sunlight, male given name

            • Turkish Hurşit
            • English Khorshid
          • Persian خراسان Xorâsân Place name: Sun-Coming, East, Khorasan

            • English Khorasan
    • Indo-Aryan

      • Mitanni Aryan *šuwar

        • Mitanni Aryan Šuwardata Sun-Given (personal name)
      • Sanskrit 𑀲𑁆𑀯𑀭𑁆 svàr sun

        • Sanskrit 𑀲𑀽𑀭𑁆𑀬 sū́rya sun, God of the Sun

          • Elu

            • Sinhala ඉර ira sun
            • Dhivehi އިރު iru sun, time
          • Pali surya

            • Malay suria sun
            • Thai สุริยา sù-rí-yá sun rare, used in names and compounds

              • Thai สุริยคราส sù-rí-yá-krâat solar eclipse
          • Sauraseni

            • Madhya Sauraseni

              • Hindi सूरज sūraj sun
          • Bengali সূর্য surjô
          • Punjabi ਸੂਰਜ sūraj
          • Telugu సూర్యుడు sūryuḍu sun
          • Sanskrit 𑀲𑀽𑀭𑁆𑀬 𑀦𑀫𑀲𑁆𑀓𑀸𑀭 sū́rya namaskāra sun salutation

            • English Surya Namaskara
  • Proto-Indo-European *sh̥₂wén oblique form ^[1]

    • Celtic *sawenos sun

      • Brythonic

        • Welsh huan sun (rare)
    • Germanic *sunnȭ sun

      • West Germanic

        • Old English sunne sun

          • English sun

            • English sunglasses

              • Japanese サングラス sangurasu sunglasses
        • Frankish sunna sun

          • Dutch zon sun
        • Old High German sunna sun

          • German Sonne sun
          • Yiddish זון zun sun
        • West Germanic *sunnōn dag Sunday calque of Latin dies Solis

          • Old English sunnandæġ Sunday

            • English Sunday
            • Yola Zindei Sunday
          • Frankish *sunnadag

            • Dutch zondag Sunday

              • Afrikaans Sondag Sunday

                • Zulu iSonto Sunday
              • Japanese ドンタク dontaku Sunday (archaic), holiday, day off, festival day

                • Japanese 半ドン handon a half-day (half work or school and half holiday)
          • Old High German sunnuntag Sunday

            • German Sonntag
            • Yiddish זונטיק zuntik Sunday
          • Old Norse sunnudagr Sunday

            • Danish søndag Sunday
            • Icelandic sunnudagur Sunday
            • Finnish sunnuntai Sunday
      • Germanic *sunþraz south, sunward

        • North Germanic

          • Old Norse suðr south

            • Danish syd south
            • Icelandic suður south
        • West Germanic

          • Old English sūþ south

            • English south
            • Old French sud ^[3]

              • French sud ^[3]
              • Italian sud ^[3]
              • Spanish sur ^[3]
          • Frankish

            • Dutch zuid south
        • Germanic *sunþanē sunwardly, southerly adverb

          • North Germanic

            • Old Norse sunnan southern

              • Danish sønden
              • Icelandic sunnan southern
          • West Germanic

            • Frankish *sūthan

              • Dutch zuiden south, southern
              • German Süden south
    • Indo-Iranian

      • Iranian

        • Avestan 𐬓𐬀𐬥 xᵛan sun

Visual

Collected English words

Sowilo, heliotrope, helium, He, Helios, girasole, girasol, Jerusalem artichoke, sol, solar, solarium, Khorshid, Khorasan, Surya Namaskara, sun, sunglasses, Sunday, south

Footnotes

1. ^

   *sóh₂wl̥ ("solar") vs. *sh̥₂wén ("sun") is the only known case of a heteroclitic l/n stem, but it behaves identically to the larger group of r/n stems, just with *l instead of *r.

   The l/n alternation paradigm was levelled independently in different language families. Sometimes it was changed to use *-l- in both forms, in others to use *-n- in both forms.

   The "oblique form" shown here is a theoretical nominative declension back-formed from genitive *sh₂wéns as if the stem did not alternate between *-l- and *-n-. But in reality, this form probably never occurred, as the levellings happened much later. For example in Germanic the levelling appears to happen after the split between North and West Germanic, perhaps around the 3rd century CE.

2. ^

   Helium is named after the sun, because it was first identified in the spectral emission lines of light from the Sun, 13 years before it was ever identified on Earth. As a noble gas, helium is both rare on Earth, and the second least reactive of any element, leaving it hidden from the early chemical discovery processes.

3. ^

   Latin words for cardinal directions, in this case auster/meridies, were replaced or supplemented in most Romance languages by borrowings from Old English. Weird. Probably connected to the handful of nautical words that were also borrowed from Old English into Vulgar Latin.